Dateline Review

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By now most people have either watched or been told about last nights Dateline piece on Detroit and the spin machine is in already in full swing.

Stop blaming everyone else. Cries of “it was a bias piece” or “unfair job and selective imagery” are not going to fly with me. Why? Because the people who make those cries are the type of people who have killed Detroit. Oh sure, there are an endless stream of reasons Detroit is what it is but No.1? People passing the buck. People blaming everyone else but themselves for all that is wrong with their lives. Parents not parenting. Children allowed to run the streets as illiterate thugs. The good kid who tries to make it through generally dragged down by a complete lack of support. Homes in decay or outright blight. Not one of these problems is anyone’s fault except the people involved.

Take a note of that Dateline story, the woman who was the centerpiece of it all. Taking in children, working her behind off, not letting her “kids” get away with the smallest transgression. She had every reason to pout and blame the world or the suburbs or whatever the latest en vogue excuse is for Detroit. The truth is Detroit has a simple and almost singular enemy…itself.

As discussed on Friday’s program, which is podcasted here on 971theticket.com, the middle class has been squeezed out, parents are passing the buck and we are looking at a future dependent on a youth that is clueless and devoid of respect and drive. When people say Detroit only graduates a quarter of its high schoolers are they making it up? How about when people say almost half of adults in Detroit are functionally illiterate? So go ahead, cry, act like it’s mindless Detroit bashing…it might be. It’s also the truth in its rawest form.

If you invest in your family both financially and emotionally your kids will be better people. Not a tough concept. As I said Friday, I don’t come from much. Paycheck to paycheck, no vacations, no new clothes, standard struggling family. It was also the best childhood a kid could have. Parents who demanded accountability. Rewarded achievement with trust. Family time. Support, discipline, you name it was there. Why? Because my parents lived for their children. Nobody in my family extended or otherwise had ever spent a day on a college campus yet I was told “You are going to college and moving out of here the day you graduate”…period. I borrowed every penny. Worked multiple jobs. I made it. This isn’t some martyr piece either, I’m simply making the point that in Detroit this situation doesn’t happen often. Why? People have quit. On themselves, on their children, on their neighborhoods and yes on their city. That program last night showed it clear as day and yet people are crying once again that the media was unfair. Yaaaaaaaaawwwnnnn.

Lose the sense of entitlement that rages within Detroit. Nobody owes anybody a damn thing. You want better? Go to school. Go to work. Demand more from your children. Make your neighborhood better within your own walls. Obama isn’t waiving a magic wand here, it’s on us as people to fix this. People in the suburbs to support Detroit with dollars. Dollars for local businesses, bars, restaurants and products. People in the city limits actually putting out functional members of society. Fixing themselves before demanding anyone to help them.

The Dateline piece simply showed just how bad things are in Detroit city proper. If you don’t want those pictures shown, or stories told, turn it off. The rest of the nation had its eyes opened to the plight of this city. the blame is on its residents, who for years have passed the buck on themselves and at a minimum exacerbated the already failing environment.

People produce the environment not the other way around. You’re only a product of your environment if you are allowed to be. A kid in Beverly Hills can just as easily be a drug addicted felon as a kid from the war zone by 94. You stray off the path, get no guidance, are allowed to run wild…you end up in the same place.the environment only improves and sustains itself because of its people.

I’m prepared for people to act out today. I know my co-host will defend his city, I respect that. But as someone who has made this area my home by choice I will not placate to the masses by making excuses. This is about truth, honesty and just admitted where the blame really lies. If you are offended by my words than maybe you are the person I’m writing about. Think it over.